Interview With a Daredevil: Lucas Brunelle

Lucas Brunelle has filmed 150 alleycat races, usually with two cameras strapped to his helmet, and has been accused of glorifying dangerous riding. Is he ruining cycling's image for everyone--or just trying to save us?

You grew up in an affluent Cape Cod beach town. How did you become the poster boy for gonzo riding?
I wanted an alternative to the homogenized way that people did things there, so I played hooky on my BMX bike. One of my first cars was a classic police cruiser. My friends and I used to bomb down the highway with the blue lights blaring. Sometimes we'd break into Walter Cronkite's bowling alley. I got my Cat 2 license when I was 16 and won dozens of races. In college I worked as a messenger and became obsessed with riding in traffic. You can't replicate the mobility of a bike, not even on a motorcycle or in a helicopter.

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Your new movie, Lucas Brunelle: Line of Sight, offers up hair-raising footage from Beijing, Boston, Dublin, New York, and Tokyo. What's the craziest stunt you've pulled?
In Miami, we rode on I-95 for 2 miles, and crossed three lanes of traffic. The cars were coming behind us at 60 or 70 miles an hour. When you're riding like that, the endorphins create this heightened sense of awareness. You notice a car veering in a distant lane or someone braking on an overpass.

Do you ride like that even when you're picking up groceries?
Yes. Every seat I have is as sharp as a razor, so you always play to roll.

Last year you spent $80,000 of your own money filming alleycats. Why?
Almost daily, I get e-mail from people who tell me I've inspired them to ride more. And they're taking risks in their lives. One person has cancer; now she's using her savings to travel. Another was in a relationship with someone she didn't love; she left. For a lot of people, "No, you can't" is a motto. I'm saying, "Hey, you can live life on your own accord."

Ever get hurt?
I once got T-boned and had a bunch of surface wounds. It looked gnarly, but I was okay. It was Halloween so I got compliments on my face. But my worst accidents were from amateur road races. You have Cat 3s taking a rookie line and single-handedly taking out two dozen riders. They don't have the handling skills that a messenger does. When a pace car abruptly stops, you have to go around it instead of braking, and they won't do it. I still have road rash from 10 years ago—one time I scraped my hip down to the bone.